part 12. some things that don't make sense - how not to name a brand

the nestle effort is awash with many things that don't make sense. there is one more that those who visit the website might find surprising.

the website allows visitors to vote for entries and there's a tally of how many votes each entry has gotten.

however, there is nothing in the promo mechanics that says the winning entry that gets the most number of votes will win the contest! what the mechanics say is that the winning entry will be judged based on (a) creativity (40%), (b)suitability of the name to the product concept (30%) and (c) appetite appeal (30%.) in other words, nestle can actually declare as winner any of the entries listed there as finalists, even if the name didn't get a single vote in the website.

"help-choose-a-name" is the heading and the accompanying text leading to the list of finalists that shows the number of votes entries got. from a technical standpoint or from a purely semantics, these do not say the entry with the most number of votes will win. but clearly having this feature of allowing visitors to the website to cast their votes for preference has definitely created a clear impression that the number of votes will determine the winner. and in fact judging on the comments and movements of the votes, including the efforts of urflower (pinoy exchange bulletin board)and authors of entries who even went to the extent of opening dozens of email addresses just to be able to cast multiple votes per day) seem to say they think the entry that gets the highest number of votes will win!

what is the point then for allowing visitors to cast their votes?

what they wrote in the website indicate it's just to get a feel for what the website visitors feel about the names. a way to measure interest or preference on the names. in other words, the point i have made earlier - to generate buzz and excitement among the target audience. allowing people to vote and know the rankings will necessarily push people to keep on going to the website to check the status of their choices on a daily basis and create some excitement on pushing a particular entry to win with votes.

they created a competition and as in any competition, it became not very friendly in some, among those pushing for their entries when you read the comments. naturally, the comments got a mix of pushing for their entries with praises and a bashing contest on entries people did not like. allowing people to post comments is not necessarily a bad thing as that allowed nestle for their purpose to get feedback.

but the whole thing also sets up the visitors and voters for disappointment when they eventually find out that contrary to the impression it created, the number of votes they casted will not determine the winner. i wonder how the people who made an effort to vote (some on a daily basis using multiple email accounts) will feel when they find out the truth that their efforts of voting does not mean a thing to the winner?

nestle had good intentions for their own marketing purpose but what they did may result to visitors feeling duped and can create dislike, to say the least against nestle. and that is the exact opposite of what nestle wanted to achieve with this effort. they did the effort to create buzz and excitement for the launch of a new brand. if the website visitors feel cheated or duped, then for sure, they will not buy the new ice cream product, whatever name they eventually chose to give it. there are 62 entries, choosing one winner means 61 will get disappointed. the intent was at minumum to create some goodwill among potential buyers of the brand but they can end up creating badwill instead.

to be continued.....